Plan to House-Hack In Central New Jersey

[Mark Belenky]

Hello Bigger Pockets Community, 

Currently I've got a good paying W2 job however, I've been trying to get my foot in the door to become a full time real estate investor.  I've purchased my first investment property in Ohio just over a year ago and though that's doing well, I realize that in order for me to expedite my goal I'll have to make some major life changes.  So, I've decided to prep my primary home for sale in March 2018, find a reasonably inexpensive rental and start looking for a multi-family home which I could move into and  "House-Hack" to free up my income.  This in turn will allow me to build for my down payments and reserves for future investments.

I've also recently been looking around Central East Jersey such as East Rutherford, North Arlington, Kearny, Nutley, Carlstadt, Wood Ridge, and the nearby areas and I've seen a few decent opportunities but, they seem to fly off the market as quickly as they come up. From the many guests on the Bigger Pocket Pod Cast that I listen to every week, they say that if it's on the MLS it's probably not the best deal. Does anyone here know how to gain access to information on properties prior to them being listed on the MLS?

These are my goals in obtaining my first house-hack:

• My primary house is currently being worked on to stage it for sale in March 2018.
• Put my primary home up for sale by owner in March 2018 with a fair market price (I'll get the appraisal done just prior to putting it on the market).
• If I'm unable to sell it myself (I'll give it a good 2 months effort), I will get an agent to sell it for me.
• Rent an inexpensive apartment to free me up from any non cash flowing debt.
• Go at a 110% pace looking for a multi-family primary home in a B neighborhood.
• Once acquired I'll then start preparing for the next multi-family home that I will be house hacking.
• And then do it again.

Thank you Bigger Pocket's Community :-)

P.S.

Does anyone know how to set triggers to send me an email when I get a response to posts?

Thanks!

[Shawn Mcenteer]

My wife and I️ are always keeping an eye on MFR. right now we are still renovating the unit we live in while our tenants cover the majority of our mortgage. We are not in a rush to buy our next property because we want to establish strong rental income from tenants to increase our lending. We plan to refi some money out of current property and use it to purchase and renovate next location wherever that may be.